The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

"I don't actually know much insider information about this matter because the fact was that so far, nobody knew when exactly the book was stolen," Mador said, her voice accompanied by the soft splashing of water. "I doubt even the Rhine Kingdom's king knows the exact time of theft."

When Alice heard the splashing sound, she quickly determined that Mador was taking a bath. She had previously stayed in the Royal Magic Tower's dormitory, so she knew that each dormitory room came with a bathroom with a bathtub in it.

"Nobody knows the exact time of theft? Why?" Alice asked, feeling a little surprised by Mador's answer. The events recorded in Collins's memo were ordered chronologically. Every entry in the memo was also marked by date. So, Alice assumed that the dates in the memo were correct. "Didn't it happen a few months ago?"

"Well…to be precise, the Royal Magic Tower's library staff only realized the Demon King's Shadow book had gone missing a few months ago," Mador said. Although she didn't know how Alice had come to learn about an event that had taken place in the Royal Magic Tower a few months ago, she still decided to explain the incident to Alice. "Roughly a few months ago, a graduate student wanted to write a magic thesis on "Deceiving the World." Hence, he sought to borrow Dragon's Shadow, Forest's Shadow, Shadow of the Elements, and Demon King's Shadow from the library."

"There are so many variations of these deception-type spells?" Alice curiously asked. This was the first time she had heard about Forest's Shadow and Shadow of the Elements. However, their names didn't sound particularly powerful, so she wasn't sure if they were also taboo-level spells like Dragon's Shadow and Demon King's Shadow. "What happened next?"

"Then, a library staff helped him find these books, but they discovered that the Demon King's Shadow book on the shelf didn't contain anything related to the taboo," Mador said. Then, with a slight chuckle, she continued, "Clamped within the book's cover was an adult education book called Brian's Forty-Eight Moves. Someone had long since switched out the real taboo book."

"I see. So, this matter was only discovered a few months ago, but the theft had occurred at an even earlier date."

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Alice experienced an even bigger headache after learning more about this incident. With this, nobody would know when exactly the taboo book was stolen. It could be several months or several years. This would drastically increase the scope of her search.

"But don't worry. There is a fixed time range for when the book was stolen. Someone else had borrowed the book during January of this year, and the library staff had verified that the book was normal when it was checked out and returned," Mador explained. "Meanwhile, that graduate student tried to borrow the book in July, which was two months ago. So, the theft must have happened between January and July."

Alice couldn't help but find Mador's answer a little funny. July just so happened to be the month she had transmigrated to this otherworld. So, it would seem that the book was stolen before she had transmigrated.

"I recall the library has surveillance cameras, right? Since they know the theft took place between January and July, the authorities should be able to find some clues if they go through the surveillance footage," Alice said. The theft of a taboo that could be used to summon a Demon King shouldn't be considered a trivial matter. It would be illogical for the Rhine Kingdom's authorities not to inspect the surveillance footage.

"Of course they've thought of that method. But the problem is that they didn't get any useful information," Mador answered. " The library doesn't have cameras keeping track of every little corner. Unfortunately, as Demon King's Shadow wasn't a particularly popular book, it was kept in a place outside of surveillance."

Mador's answer rendered Alice speechless. This was a taboo they were talking about, yet the Royal Magic Tower didn't deem it worthy of being put under surveillance?

However, after thinking it over, Alice found that such a course of action more or less made sense. After all, nobody would try to borrow a taboo book under normal circumstances. The only times taboo books would see themselves being desired was when someone was trying to reference the principles of certain taboos for research purposes. Because of this, a taboo book would only be borrowed once every few months. It didn't help that rarely would anybody try to steal a taboo book.

Combining these factors, it was only natural that the Royal Magic Tower deemed it unnecessary to waste resources on ensuring the security of taboo books. Only after someone had actually stolen a taboo book that the Royal Magic Tower realized a problem—a person who had decided to steal a taboo book most likely could cast it.

Then, everyone realized just how much of a threat these taboo books could pose once they were stolen. So, the Royal Magic Tower now had specific surveillance cameras aimed at the locations of taboo books. Unfortunately, the implementation of these countermeasures was too late, and Demon King's Shadow remained missing.

"The police also tried checking the nearby cameras, but because foot traffic in these areas is high, it's impossible to determine which person has gotten close to Demon King's Shadow." Mador couldn't help but chuckle when she spoke up to this point. She wasn't a citizen of the Rhine Kingdom, so if someone were to cause trouble using Demon King's Shadow, she could simply flee to the demon realm. So, she naturally didn't feel any psychological pressure even after learning about the taboo's theft. "Hence, nobody knows when Demon King's Shadow went missing and who stole it."

"No clues at all?"

Alice frowned. Alice doubted she could do a better job investigating this matter than the Rhine Kingdom's police. So, it wasn't good news to hear that the police had failed to find any clues.

"If we are talking about clues…there is one. Moreover, this is a clue that only I know. Not even the Rhine Kingdom's police know about this clue's existence," Mador said when she heard Alice's troubled voice. "Specifically, it is a children's book called Demon Wolf's Trail—Coyote Team's Adventures. The book was placed on the same shelf as the stolen Demon King's Shadow."

"Why would a children's book be in the Royal Magic Tower's library? Also, why is it even placed next to a taboo book?" Alice asked, having difficulties processing Mador's words.

"It's probably because the library's books are sorted alphabetically," Mador explained. "But that's not important. What's important is the small magic item inside this book. It's a toy that came with the book, and its function is to record nearby traces of mana."

"Record nearby traces of mana?" Realization quickly dawned on Alice. "You mean…"

"That's right. If my guess is correct, the thief should have used magic when stealing the book, so the toy ended up recording the thief's mana," Mador said, smiling. "But because it is a toy for children, by the time I borrowed the storybook and took out the toy, most of the mana stored in it had dissipated already. So, I transferred the remaining mana into a magic crystal and have kept it with me since. Well? Do you need it, Lord Demon King?"